Posted on 02/16/2010 7:58:11 AM PST by decimon
Middle aged and elderly people with high levels of vitamin D could reduce their chances of developing heart disease or diabetes by 43%, according to researchers at the University of Warwick.
A team of researchers at Warwick Medical School carried out a systematic literature review of studies examining vitamin D and cardiometabolic disorders. Cardiometabolic disorders include cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome.
Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that is naturally present in some foods and is also produced when ultraviolet rays from sunlight strike the skin and trigger vitamin D synthesis. Fish such as salmon, tuna and mackerel are good sources of vitamin D, and it is also available as a dietary supplement.
Researchers looked at 28 studies including 99,745 participants across a variety of ethnic groups including men and women. The studies revealed a significant association between high levels of vitamin D and a decreased risk of developing cardiovascular disease (33% compared to low levels of vitamin D), type 2 diabetes (55% reduction) and metabolic syndrome (51% reduction).
The literature review, published in the journal Maturitas, was led by Johanna Parker and Dr Oscar Franco, Assistant Professor in Public Health at Warwick Medical School.
Dr Franco said: “We found that high levels of vitamin D among middle age and elderly populations are associated with a substantial decrease in cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.
“Targeting vitamin D deficiency in adult populations could potentially slow the current epidemics of cardiometabolic disorders.”
All studies included were published between 1990 and 2009 with the majority published between 2004 and 2009. Half of the studies were conducted in the United States, eight were European, two studies were from Iran, three from Australasia and one from India.
Notes to editors
For more details or to arrange an interview with the researchers please contact Kelly Parkes-Harrison, Communications Officer, 02476150483, 07824 540863, k.e.parkes@warwick.ac.uk
The study, Levels of vitamin D and cardiometabolic disorders: Systematic review and meta-analysis, is published in Maturitas. Parker J, Hashmi O, Dutton D, Mavrodaris A, Stranges S, Kandala NB, Clarke A, Franco OH. Levels of vitamin D and cardiometabolic disorders: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Maturitas. 2010 Feb; 65:225-236
More D ping.
does anyone know the difference of the types of D on the market to take for supplementation? I often see different types and don’t really know if I am taking the best one.
What’s the definition of a “high level?”
My understanding is that D3 is the one you want (NOT D2) and it absorbs best if taken in oil.
I like the Carlsons 2000 IU oil gel caps that I get at Vitacost.com, they’re only about 6 bucks a bottle and I really feel it when I forget to take them.
LQ
Vitamin d3 great to ward off the flu also
How much is a “high” level?
Vitamin D3, also known as cholecalciferol.
Yeah, I wanted to see that too. That should be by blood level so the amount to take would vary by size, weight, whatever.
Thanks for the info!
ping
High vitamin D level = high testosterone level
There’s an amazingly simple way for western men to raise their testosterone level. All they have to do is take a supplement containing extra vitamin D. At least, this is what we deduce from an epidemiological study done at the Medical University Graz in Austria, which will soon be published in Clinical Endocrinology.
Vitamin D is actually a hormone – one that regulates three percent of our genes. Among those genes are a few that are responsible for the production of testosterone in the Leydig cells. So vitamin D is an important vitamin, certainly once you realise that an overwhelming majority of the western population has too little vitamin D in their blood.
This is because our food contains too little vitamin D, so we have to rely mainly on the vitamin D that our body makes. When exposed to sunlight our skin cells convert cholesterol into vitamin D. But we get too little sunlight and are therefore unable to make enough vitamin D.
sw
ping
5000 IU daily here.
—that’s what was being said about Vitamin E about 35 years ago—
For this my doctor says D3.
In my clinic lab values for Vit D are 30-100.
I resemble that remark.
Nano-sumpinorothers per liter of blood?
Which one? You're admitting to decrepitatin' or boasting of high testosterone? If both then be sure to have your heart checked. ;-)
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